President Clinton said last night he was “profoundly shocked and saddened” by the Colorado school killings and said more needs to be done to curb youth violence.

“Surely people will recognize that they have to be alive to the possibility that it can occur in any community in America,” Clinton said. “And maybe that will help us to keep it from happening again.”

But the president avoided taking a position on whether new laws or other federal actions are needed to halt further schoolhouse shootings.

He mentioned in his televised address last night that he had spoken with Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), who has been pushing a bill to limit minors’ access to firearms by requiring child locks on handguns and revoking the licenses of gun salesmen who sell to minors.

But Clinton stopped short of immediately supporting McCarthy’s proposal or any others.

“We owe it to the people of Littleton and to the families involved in this tragedy to let them go through the grieving and try to get the facts,” Clinton said.

“The rest of us have a responsibility to do everything we can to make sure this doesn’t make 1999 another year like last year.”

McCarthy, whose husband was among those murdered by Long Island Rail Road gunman Colin Ferguson in 1993, watched the Colorado tragedy unfold on TV.

“It always sends a chill up your spine,” the Long Island congresswoman told The Post. “The scar never heals.”

McCarthy said school killings will continue until some action is taken to stop them.

“It used to be that this kind of thing only happened in urban schools,” she said. “Not any more. It’s happening everywhere.

“Kids have easy access to guns and that has to stop.”

Colorado’s congressional delegation also reacted to the news with shock.

“The school’s approximately a mile or so from my house,” said Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo, a former high school teacher.

“Incredible,” Tancredo said. “Of course, we know people who have kids there. It is a human tragedy, and I feel quite helpless to do anything immediately … except to pray, which is what I’ve been doing.”